After visiting more than fourteen pilgrimage spots till date, I still don't get the point of it all. If you are a religious minded devotee of any form of God, you would probably find this objectionable and feel affronted. But sadly my friend, that is the truth. I still don't get the point of all the fuss. And please don't think I haven't done my research. Of course I find the sheer multitude of devotees risking their lives and luck every year to attain diving blessings at Vaishnodevi and Badrinath awe-inspiring. I also admire people who can walk barefeet to make their holy offerings to the Siddhi Vinayaka. There is a mystical aura to pandits bathing in freezing cold water at the banks of the river Ganga at the Varanasi Ghat. It's all so intrinsically a part of what we call religion in India that such acts are bestowed with a sense of utmost significance, innate devotion and a path leading to what we deem as salvation. My only question is: Are we deserving of being called God's offsprings on account of this facade we put up to appease his omnipresence? I beg to differ.
Religion as understood by me is a purely manmade entity nurtured out of an inherent need to instill authority, fear, hierarchy and abstinence. Usually, this is manifested more stringently in the case of our womanhood. All the vices that could possibly lead to shame are easily forgiven when it comes to a man but if a woman so much as refuses to use 'purdah' or 'touch her husband's feet', it is condemned as being an act of evil/defiance/rebellion. Religion in this context helps add unimaginable amounts of gravity to ban such acts as being against the will of God. Whoever is caught committing such acts is inadvertently termed as 'sinner' and must undergo punishment to salvage any opportunity of not landing at the gates of hell after death. Such religious obligations are seen across cultures in some form of the other, and eventually boil down to intolerable degrees of subjugation all in the name of true faith and submission to the Almighty. If idol worship, numerous rites and rituals for every occasion, women disempowerment and superstitions are mere offsprings of religion propagated and practised blindly and without question, the even more devastating after effects of religion have led to the birth of fanaticism, bigotry and terrorism. So pervasive are these diabolical tentacles of religious hatred spurred by warring leaders of various clans and communities, that they have inpinged on every nation and shaken political and social infrastructures to its roots. While it is easy to admonish a few extremists for leading such aggressive movements to their ultimate culmination of doom, our hand in unintentionally stoking and perpetrating such atrocities cannot be overlooked. Religious extremism is based on few so called theologists taking the liberty to twist the words of an already manmade entity i.e religion in his or her own way to serve his or her selfish purposes. Our crime is, we have let this happen for too long.
It is not in our hands to quell this Frankenstein we have created as conveniently as we let it grow. But there is much we can do while we still have the power to do it. Last heard, a temple is to be erected in the name of the deceased Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. Since when did we start deifying political leaders to an extent where we need to justify worshipping them? Are the numerous forms of God that religion gave us falling short of nourishing our faith? Do we then say, this is the neo-religious zeal of 21st century man who feels the need to invest his faith in new avatars rendering the former ones obsolete? Or do you agree that this is yet again, a mockery of all that religion is/was/will be meant to be. Alas, anything that is manmade has the natural tendency to be revoked, restored, reinvented, rejuvenated and rebuilt. For the good or bad of mankind? Well, I will let the future decide that.
Meanwhile, I will continue to chant the name of God albeit in my own personal, spiritual and discreet manner and continue to believe that good karma and undying belief in the goodness of humanity will lead me to the doors of Heaven one day. Amen!
